Elder & Ancestor  Wisdom

My wish for you
Is that you continue
       Continue
To be who and how you are
To astonish a mean world
With your acts of kindness
       Continue
To allow humor to lighten the burden
Of your tender heart
       Continue
In a society dark with cruelty
To let the people hear the grandeur
Of God in the peals of your laughter
       Continue
To remind the people that
Each is as good as the other
And that no one is beneath
Nor above you
       Continue
To plant a public kiss of concern
On the cheek of the sick
And the aged and infirm
And count that as a
Natural action to be expected
       Continue
To ignore no vision
Which comes to enlarge your range
And increase your spirit
       Continue
To dare to love deeply
And risk everything
For the good thing
Maya Angelou
From her poem Continue 

Beannacht,
Judith – judith@stonefires.com

Ah, those stories we want to hear over and over and over again.

The Great Realization

Now we are writing stories for ourselves and our children and likely our children’s children. We are creating the stories of this time…for all time. 

The Great Realization. I was delighted to see this story take social media by storm. You have probably already seen it. But like any favorite bedtime story, it’s worth watching again and again and again. The YouTube video is linked in the title above. 

May the stories we write be filled with hope and possibility. May they become bedtime favorites.

Beannacht,
Judith – judith@stonefires.com

This poster was shared by a friend in Ireland. “…when things were normal.” Well. It doesn’t seem we are going back there. Which makes these principles all the more important. There will a new normal and the stories we hold will be essential.

The stories we hold about this cave cocooning will be among the stories that shape our emerging. The stories and energies of fear and anxiety will not serve us now…nor will they serve our way forward. Yes. Those energies are very present in us and the collective consciousness. It’s palpable. Yet we can shift that perspective by the stories we tell.

Beannacht,
Judith – judith@stonefires.com

This is the time to be slow,
Lie low to the wall
Until the bitter weather passes.

Try, as best you can, not to let
The wire brush of doubt
Scrape from your heart
All sense of yourself
And your hesitant light.

If you remain generous,
Time will come good;
And you will find your feet
Again on fresh pastures of promise,
Where the air will be kind
And blushed with beginning.

John O’Donohue

Yes. I realize this wisdom from John has been shared widely of late. But there is just so much here to take on board, as is so often the case with his writing. 

We are indeed hunkered down behind a wall waiting for this bitter weather to pass. And in this country it’s not just about COVID19. There are dark storms raging. It’s so important that we don’t doubt ourselves individually and collectively. It’s so important that we continue to nurture the essential light we hold and have faith that most Americans continue to hold the values of compassion and justice and generosity. That in this time of hunkering and cocooning, our contemplations and introspections lead us home to our higher nature and to the aspiration that, rooted in this foundation of our common and shared values, we can and will shape a new future. Together. 

I hear this narrative growing. It’s a song of great hope.

Beannacht,
Judith – judith@stonefires.com